


I'll not forget you, sweetheart

by Metas



Series: T'aint nobody's business if I do [7]
Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Musical References, One Shot, slight Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)/Charlie Magne (Hazbin Hotel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 14:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21496009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metas/pseuds/Metas
Summary: The hand is in her hair again but she can’t feel it over the ache where her heart is.
Relationships: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel) & Charlie Magne (Hazbin Hotel)
Series: T'aint nobody's business if I do [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542289
Comments: 25
Kudos: 204





	I'll not forget you, sweetheart

It happened so suddenly, without warning, one day.

They were lounging in the sitting room, just Vaggie, Angel and her. The blonde excitedly telling Angel about a function they were going to have for the hotel, a bake sale to help advertise to sinners and give back to pentagram’s community at the same time. Whatever Angel was saying at the time is cut off by surprise when the girl in Charlie’s arms starts to glow. When Charlie suddenly pulls away with a shout of pain as if burned, Vaggie looks at the girl in shock and concern. If the sears on her palms were anything to go by she HAD been burned.

Before anyone could do anything a flash of white hot light filled the room. Blinded, Charlie called out to the white haired girl, bracing against the light unable to do anything but reach her hand to her. It was over just as suddenly as it began and the princess of hell could only stare uncomprehendingly at the spot where her girlfriend was just before.

When the princess had gone to her father in a panic, she found him alone looking bitterly into a drink he could never truly be inebriated by. He looked at his daughter with such intense anger and disgust, such resentment, Charlie began to fear for herself in a way she never did before when in the presence of her father. He had already known what happened and told her as much before demanding she leave him to his solace. No one comes in to hell without his notice, let alone leaves hell. It was the first, but it wouldn’t be the last. Lucifer would later look on in combination of pride and disdain as his very own daughter would give to others that which he would never receive.

It’s month’s later after the Vaggie’s ascension, while Charlie’s still reeling, that the next person ascends. She knows the loss of the other woman still weighs heavy on her mind but she needs to keep strong for the hotel. This is all she had been working for this entire time, right? So then why does she feel a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach? Charlie tries to brush it off.

The blonde jumps in surprise when there’s frantic banging on her office door. She sprints around her desk, swinging the door open where she’s met with a hug around her waist, the red hair of the hotel’s sole cleaning staff burying self in her stomach with a loud cry and whimper.

“Husk is gone!”

The words leave a weight in her chest as she picks up the girl, walking briskly to the main entry hall of the hotel. When she gets there it’s completely empty, the sight of the vacant front desk where their clerk usually sat was like a physical blow.

When Angel’s time comes they’re both expecting it but somehow they’re still not ready. The spider had really come through for her in Vaggie’s absence becoming a friend like none she had ever had before. He was supportive, funny and for a little while she felt that things would get better, that she was starting to heal. She was just starting to feel a little more like her old self when she walked into his room one day only to see him faintly glowing, the spider looking at his own hands in shock. She immediately ran to him, wrapping him tightly in an embrace, the same burning sensation she felt from Vaggie on every part of her skin that made contact with him.

She can feel hesitant hands on her shoulders in a light embrace as the spider whispers a fond and mournful good bye to her before the light blinds her, even with her eyes closed against the glare. The burn is gone, the light is gone. The weight on her shoulders, the body wrapped in her embrace, the voice whispering into her hair; It’s gone.

Charlie doesn’t notice when she falls to her knees, tears streaming down her face, arms still in an empty embrace that tightens around herself into a self-hug. She doesn’t notice the arms that wrap around her from behind, one hand carding through her hair, as she sobs inconsolably into the newly vacant room.

When Charlie next awakens she’s in her own bed, she’s thinks it was just a bad dream, that Angel’s going to come in and shake her awake for lazing away when there’s a hotel to run. A hand on her shoulder causes her to take notice of the other person in the room who had been keeping watch over her. The look on his face, is enough to tell her it wasn’t a dream at all. She feels numb, looking up at the ceiling neither person exchanging words in the vast empty space left behind by the friends who’ve gone ahead.

A soft sound breaks the silence that overtakes the room and she knows it’s his way of trying to make her feel better. But now that he’s broken the spell, she cant help but do anything but cry. The hand is in her hair again but she can’t feel it over the ache where her heart is.

Alastor had been taking care of her for weeks, a near a constant in her doldrums. He would try to lift her spirits with jokes, stories of the newer tenants who had come in after hearing that atonement for sinners did exist. Sometimes he would just be in the room, reading a book out loud to the silent girl. The business was booming in her absence. Alastor and Niffty had managed everything up until then, they even got a couple of new people hired to help as hotel staff that the previous staff had left vacant.

Her days became a blur of him entering her room with a wide smile and cheerful voice to make sure she got a shower at least, spending time with her, making sure she ate something and then leaving. 

Then one day, he didn’t. 

When a full day without him passed, Charlie rose from her bed slowly. She was feeling that unease in her stomach again. He would have popped up sometime in the day to at least made sure that she ate something. Her mind immediately goes to the only explanation she can think of and jumps into action, bursting through her own door already running to his room, still aware of the twists and turns of her hotel even in her inactivity.

When she gets there he’s sitting, hunched over, in his chair next to his window, holding a tumbler of amber liquid. The relief that runs through her is palpable. He looks up in shock at her. “Charlie my dear? Whats wrong.”

“You… You d-didn’t come … so I-I thought …” From her place in the door she takes in his appearance, noticing immediately that despite the smile he’s giving her, his eyes are tight and his shoulders are tense. She can see the burns that run up his inner arms, that go from the bottom of his vest all the way up to one side of his neck partly over his cheek, the two thin lines that run around the space at his chest under his arms seemingly reaching all the way around.

She’s immediately in his arms, giving him a hug that he stiffens at. She can feel the controlled tightness of his body through his suit. She wants him to know she understands and it’s not much to offer but after a short while he gingerly wraps his arms around her, her head tucking against his neck under his chin and she feels the man release a shuddering wet breath.

“Ah… ma fille chèrie” They sit there in his chair and though her heart’s not fully healed, it’s content with this moment between them. They both hurt but they can share the burden of the hurt and it’s enough to ease hers just a little.  
  
_“And I will just say hello_  
_To the folks that you know,_  
_Tell them you won't be long.”_  
  
Charlie closes her eyes against the music that she hadn’t noticed was coming from him since she had entered. She can feel the hand in her hair, running soothingly through it, gently untangling the golden tresses.  
  
_“They'll be happy to know_  
_That, as I saw you go,_  
_You were singing this song._“ 

Charlie picks up the faded paper, opening it up to see what it could be. When she sees whats inside of it her expression goes through a cycle, starting at surprise to sad and then settling on fond. The paper was a list of ideas she had dreamed up years ago ending in, in her opinion, a sweet little drawing of everyone in heaven. It wasn’t realistic of her, not everyone could go to heaven, especially someone who was born in hell. After all, if she could she would have already been in heaven, right?

But when the first sinners received their redemption and word spread people began to trickle in, a hope began to grow in pentagram that never existed even before its creation. The people, Her People, began to do better and life became better as a whole. Of course some people still cause a little chaos here and there, it IS still hell, but there’s more and more sinners willing to be better people and search for atonement. The hotel is just that now, a place for people passing through, and though it took her a long time she’s come to terms with it. 

She still gets a pang of sadness whenever someone who’s stayed with them for a long time moves up to heaven but the happiness and pride she feels for them will often trump it. They’ll all always live in her heart even when they’re long gone.

A knock on the door followed by a sing song voice draws her attention.”Charlie, dear! Our new guests are waiting!” The door swings open and in strolls Alastor like he owns the room, dapper as always and never without his smile. “Is everything alright?”

Some tenants on the other hand don’t seem inclined to leave ever. Sure she’ll have some sinners who can’t help their cravings, relapse and move off the beaten path. But there are some who are fully conscious of the actions they’re taking, who do it on purpose with motive. She’s no fool, she knows the smell of blood in the air whenever Alastor returns from a periodic night out on the town every month, the look of near shame in his eye beneath his smile.

“Sorry about taking so long, Al, I kinda got lost in my head.” The blonde folds the paper and sticks it into her pocket, grabbing the pen in the desk drawer she had been searching for, picking up a stack of papers for checking in. 

The princess of hell knows she should stop him, knows it’s wrong and hypocritical. But she also knows why he’s doing it. As he takes the papers from her hands, holding them in his left while offering her his right she thinks maybe she may still need him as much as he needs her.

**Author's Note:**

> Song: We'll meet again 1939 recording  
Singer: Vera Lynn  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1xrofiEa4w
> 
> You ever get that thing where you tear up while writing a thing because the imagery is too strong in your head?  
I got that this time around.


End file.
